State of Origin: Whitewash on for Brad Fittler's NSW Blues, but it's not that simple

Brad Fittler's Baby Blues have the opportunity of a lifetime on
Wednesday night - having already sealed the series, NSW can land
the ultimate insult on Queensland by whitewashing the Maroons in
Brisbane.

After wrapping up NSW's first series win since 2014, and second
in total in 13 series since 2006, Fittler's side will have all the
running at Suncorp Stadium after Kevin Walters was forced to chop
and change his embattled Maroons team due to injury and indifferent
form.

However, make no mistake - Walters will do everything in his
power to ensure the Maroons turn up on Wednesday night, keen to
avoid a humiliating clean sweep at the hands of a young NSW
team.

Although the Blues are favourites for the series finale, and are
odds-on to claim NSW's first series clean sweep since 2000, nothing
is as easy as it seems.

"Sitting in the stadium, watching them do laps, it'd be a
terrible way to finish our campaign," Fittler told reporters on
Tuesday morning in Brisbane.

"(Whitewashes) don't come easy. During that whole reign of
Queensland, they only did it once.

"If we can do that, for a lot of blokes who are playing Origin
for their first time, it'll be pretty impressive."

It would be impressive - prior to 2018, there have only been
seven clean sweeps from 36 series.

However, on ten further occasions, a side has wrapped up the
series after two games, only to fluff a shot at a whitewash.

Most recently, in Walters' first year in charge, the Maroons
headed to the series finale looking to send retiring Blues skipper
Paul Gallen out with a whimper, only for NSW to save face.

Earlier, in 2014, Laurie Daley helped the Blues break eight
years of maroon-clad Origin footy, only for NSW to get absolutely
trounced in game three.

BLOWN CHANCES AT AN ORIGIN
WHITEWASH

1984: With Queensland wrapping up the series in
the first two games - with a 29-12 win in Brisbane and a 14-2 win
at the SCG - the 1984 series produced the first dead-rubber finish
in Origin history when the Blues won the third game 22–12 in
Brisbane.

1985: With an 18-2 win in Brisbane, followed by
a 21-14 win in Sydney, the Blues had a chance at a whitewash
following three years of Maroons dominance. However, Queensland's
20-6 win in Brisbane - exacerbated by the national selection
controversy sparked by Blues and Australian national coach Terry
Fearnley - ensured NSW's series win wasn't all roses.

1990: After consecutive clean sweeps by the
Maroons in 1988 and 1989, the Blues had the chance to exact revenge
after tight wins in games one and two. However, despite leading
10-4 after just 24 minutes, NSW coughed up their lead to gift
Queensland a face-saving victory in Brisbane.

1993: Playing their second series under Phil
Gould, NSW had sealed the shield after two close victories.
Queensland, though, sent 25-game veteran Bob Lindner out a winner
with a cruisy game three win in Brisbane in the Maroons' first
series under Wally Lewis.

1997: Having won games one and two, Tommy
Raudonikis' Blues trailed 12-0 after 13 minutes in the finale in
Sydney. The third and final game of the series, which ended in a
Maroons triumph, is infamous for the 'Cattledog' call by Raudonikis
that was an instruction to his players to initiate an all-in
brawl.

2003: An easy win in Brisbane, followed by an
easier win in Sydney, meant the Blues were heavy favourites to win
the series 3-0. However, a Matt Sing masterclass led the Maroons to
a 36-6 smashing, equalling their biggest ever Origin victory and
leaving the Blues with a flat feeling lifting the shield.

2007: In what would prove to be the second of
their eight straight series wins, Queensland came home to Suncorp
ready to seal a whitewash. However, in the finale, Dallas Johnson
was knocked out cold, Greg Inglis and Brent Tate suffered knee
injuries, and the Blues won easily. This was Hazem El Masri's only
Origin game - a pretty handy one to win.

2009: The Maroons had their second chance in
three years to win a series 3-0. Big wins in the first two games,
however, were dulled by a NSW victory, which was marred by a brutal
brawl which saw Trent Waterhouse become the first Blues player to
be sent off in an Origin game. Waterhouse had 'blindsided' an
already-knocked out Steve Price, who had been cleaned up by Brett
White.

2014: Happy dreams of 'one in a row' for Laurie
Daley's Blues - who had broken Queensland's eight-year reign after
wins in games one and two - were flattened after Queensland ran
riot in the finale in Brisbane, with the five tries-to-one result
ensuring the Maroons didn't give Daley the whitewash he and his
team craved.

2016: A narrow win in Sydney, followed by a
cruisy win in Brisbane, meant Queensland had won the series on
Walters' Maroons coaching debut. However, the Blues sent out
retiring skipper Gallen with a win, albeit to a scene of
screaming-mad chairs with ANZ Stadium only three-quarters full.

If Suncorp offers a fast track on Wednesday night, the Maroons
will be hard-pressed to keep up the Blues, with Fittler favouring
youth and speed in 2018.

Fittler's memories of the 2000 finale will be swirling around as
his side runs out on Wednesday night at Suncorp.

Exactly 18 years ago, Girdler produced the performance of his
life as Wayne Pearce's Blues were hailed as the greatest side in
Origin history after they completed a clean sweep with a 56-16
belting of the Maroons.

Whether a NSW player can replicate such a performance in the
2018 finale remains to be seen, although missing a whitewash would
sting - so much so, that Fittler invited Raudonikis to speak to the
team about the 1997 series, where his Blues threw away the chance
at a clean sweep.

On Monday, Raudonikis said his players were 'devastated' after
the loss in the 1997 finale, recalling the empty feeling of lifting
the shield on the back of a loss.

Fittler has made it very clear that the whitewash is on - but
it's not that simple.